The Zamp Team
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For small business owners, looking for the best sales tax software can take time and effort. You must consider a range of features, ensure the software is compatible with your existing systems, and find something that fits your budget.
This all needs to be done while keeping up with changes in tax laws. The ideal choice can make managing your business easier, save time, and prevent costly tax-related mistakes. The question is, how do you identify the best automated sales tax solution for your needs?
We’ll discuss the best sales tax software options below and other things worth knowing about sales tax solutions.
Top 5 Sales Tax Software Options for Small Businesses
You’re in the market for the best sales tax software, and knowing how they stack against each other is essential. We’ll explore the standout features, usability, and cost-effectiveness of the top contenders.
You’ll also get insights from expert opinions and user reviews to ensure you make an informed decision that suits your small business’s unique needs.
The top contenders for sales tax software for small businesses are Avalara, TaxJar, Zamp, Numeral, and Anrok. Let’s examine each one individually.
1. Zamp
Zamp takes a distinct pricing approach, offering a clear, single rate without hidden fees or surprises. Thisstraightforward pricing model is complemented by integration features with multiple e-commerce platforms, such asAmazon,Shopify, andother marketplaces, simplifying the tax compliance process for businesses operating across numerous sales channels.
This software also provides state-specific sales tax reports and filing. Onboarding is designed to be quick and personalized, reducing the time it takes to get up and running.
Key Features
- Hands-off onboarding: Zamp offers hands-off onboarding for any client or customer, freeing up your time to focus on your business.
- Experienced customer support team. Unlike Avalara and TaxJar, Zamp has an in-house customer support team available by phone or contact form (and we actually answer!).
- All-in-one compliance dashboard. Zamp provides a comprehensive dashboard that gives users a complete overview of their tax status, helping businesses stay on top of their sales tax requirements and obligations with little to no effort.
- Advanced tax rule engine. Zamp’s platform is equipped with an advanced tax rule engine that can handle complex sales tax scenarios for businesses, small and large.
Integrations
Zamp seamlessly integrates with e-commerce platforms like Shopify and Etsy, along with Stripe, Amazon, and others. It also works with accounting software like QuickBooks Online, allowing for functional data and straightforward sales tax reporting.
What sets Zamp apart is its willingness to provide and update existing integrations. The company is always looking to add integrations to help customers across various platforms and storefronts.
Pricing
Zamp’s pricing is based on the number of states you currently have nexus in or operate in. Everything the company offers — registrations, filing, address validation, nexus tracking, product taxability, and more — is all included in that one price you pay. This means you never have to worry about surprise charges.
Expert Opinions on Zamp
Zamp offers compelling features for small businesses, and it shows. The company received several awards from G2, including Best Support and Best Meets Requirements.
Here’s what other industry experts and existing users say about their experience with Zamp.
“We want our team’s full focus on creativity and growing the business. Not sales tax and the latest notices from 15 different states. Zamp’s managed solution is unique as they really do it all. Moving over to Zamp from our previous provider was a no-brainer.” – Allen Shafer, Co-Founder of Fulton & Roark
“I provided Zamp with my existing registration information and they set everything up for me. My advice to other businesses is to get started with Zamp right away.” – Kate Savage, Digital Marketing Manager at Otteroo
“Their team made sure we weren’t double remitting taxes that the social platform already collected. I trust them to keep our business compliant. And if anything ever comes up, I know they are just a phone call away.” – Andy Nalla, CEO of Ghost Golf.
“At Amped Bikes, our passion is motorsports. We operate in a lean, high-growth environment. When it comes to sales tax, Zamp is the perfect partner as they take care of it all so we don’t have to worry about it.” – Amy Dalley, Co-Founder of Amped.
Zamp’s streamlined onboarding process aims to make your setup effortless. Here’s what you’ll need to get set up:
- Your company’s basic details, including the company name, address, and the states where you operate
- The bank account and routing number for the account you intend to use for sales tax payments to the states
- Your current sales tax registration details for each state you’re registered in, including the registration number, and your login credentials
- A description of the products and services you offer
As you can see, Zamp’s onboarding process will allow you to get up and running quickly.
2. Avalara
alara is a provider of cloud-basedtax compliance solutions, focusing on automating the processes of sales and use tax calculation, filing, and remittance for businesses operating across multiple jurisdictions. The Avalara Avatax software is designed to integrate with various business systems and manage tasks such as tax rate determination,exemption certificate management, and sales tax return preparation. While it offers features like a user-friendly interface, Avalara falls short when considering both pricing and support.
Key Features
- Sales tax rate validation. Avalara’s functionality allows for real-time sales tax rate validation, which is beneficial for companies that have extensive transactions.
- Automated sales tax filing. Avalara provides the automatic filing of sales tax returns.
- Exemption certificate management. Customers can manage and store tax exemption certificates within the platform.
Integrations
Avalara has various integrations that connect with a wide range of platforms. Reviews have shown that it can be difficult to get integrations set up and working correctly and that customer service does not often respond to inquiries.
Pricing
Avalara offers a variety of plans that are volume-based for your business. This means that the company determines pricing based on how many transactions your company handles.
Read our in-depth comparison: https://zamp.com/zamp-vs-avalara/
3. TaxJar
Following Avalara, TaxJar emerges as another player in the cloud-based tax compliance software landscape, focusing its offerings one-commerce businesses. TaxJar helps business owners manage sales tax by automating state and local tax calculations, reporting, and filings. The software integrates with variouse-commerce platforms and payment processors and aims to simplify the monthly reporting process.
TaxJar lacks phone-based customer support, offering assistance solely through a contact form submission. This setup may not be ideal for business owners requiring immediate resolution of issues.
Key Features
- Automatic sales tax calculations. TaxJar calculates sales tax rates in real time.
- Multi-platform integration. TaxJar has a variety of integrations that work seamlessly with e-commerce platforms and marketplaces.
- Autofile feature. TaxJar has an autofile feature that automatically submits sales tax returns and payments, allowing you to meet deadlines effortlessly.
Integrations
TaxJar supports several integration options for e-commerce platforms, marketplaces, and financial systems. It connects with major platforms like Shopify, Magento, and WooCommerce, as well as marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, and Etsy.
Pricing
TaxJar offers a tiered pricing structure based on the size of your business and transaction volume. This means the company looks at the number of transactions that are processed in your storefront every month. Basic plans include essentials like tax calculation and reporting, while higher-tier plans offer international tax calculation and premium customer support.
Read our in-depth comparison: https://zamp.com/zamp-vs-taxjar/
4. Numeral
Numeral is a newcomer to the tax management game compared to TaxJar and Avalara. The company claims to specialize in sales tax management forSaaS and e-commerce businesses. It offers sales monitoring, economic nexus tracking, state registrations, sales tax collection, and monthly, quarterly, and annual remittances.
Key Features
- Sales tax compliance. Numeral automatically calculates, collects, files, and remits sales tax on your behalf.
- Tax law updates. The Numeral platform ensures you stay compliant with ongoing tax rate and regulations changes through automatic updates.
- Easy tax filing. The company streamlines tax filing with automated returns and filings.
Integrations
Numeral integrates with popular e-commerce platforms like Shopify and Magento to ensure your storefront calculates sales tax correctly at the point of sale.
Pricing
Numeral’s website does not discuss plan offerings. It states that it charges $75 per filing and $150 per state for registrations. This pricing model may not be ideal for companies operating across multiple states or platforms.
5. Anrok
Rounding out our list is Anrok, a sales tax compliance company targeting SaaS and e-commerce businesses. The company handles US sales taxes in addition to VAT and GST. Anrok offers nexus monitoring, registrations,automated sales tax calculation, filing, and remittance. Depending on your plan, integrations like QuickBooks Online, NetSuite, and Salesforce are available.
Key Features
- Real time sales tax calculation. Anrok provides real time sales tax calculations, offering accurate and current data for online SaaS businesses.
- Nexus determination. The company offers automated physical and economic nexus determinations.
- Data security. Anrok ensures customers’ tax information is safe and secure through robust security protocols.
Integrations
Anrok can integrate into e-commerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce, allowing you to manage sales tax efficiently.
Pricing
Anrok offers pricing plans that are meant to scale and grow with your business. Companies can start with a basic plan and scale up based on needs and transaction volume. Custom pricing options are also available for more robust businesses that need tailored services.
What is Sales Tax Software?
Sales tax software solutions are created to help small businesses charge, collect, report, and submit sales tax. This type of software automates the calculation of the correct amount of sales tax to charge on goods or services based on customers’ and businesses’ locations.
How Does Sales Tax Software Work?
Sales tax software is meant to simplify and automate managing sales tax data. It typically works by:
- Integrating with software. The best sales tax software connects to a company’s sales systems, such as Shopify, Stripe, or bookkeeping software, and automatically accesses the required state tax information.
- Determining product taxability.Every product or service is taxed differently. Sales tax software should identify which items are taxable and at what rate. This is especially important for businesses that sell various goods and services or sell on multiple platforms.
- Automatic and location-based calculation. Sales tax software should automatically calculate sales tax rates by state and tax jurisdictions. It should use the customer’s delivery or billing address to determine the exact tax rate for each sale.
- Reporting and state filing. The best software for small businesses compiles and calculates the total sales tax that the company owes for each tax period.
- Updates and compliance. It’s no secret that tax laws and rates change frequently. Sales tax providers automatically update their systems to reflect these changes, allowing businesses to stay compliant without worrying about changing laws from tax authorities themselves.
- In-house tax professionals. While the software is important, having tax professionals who can maintain it and work with you is just as vital. One of the best companies for small businesses that offers hands-off onboarding is Zamp. We configure your client account to save you time and ensure everything is done right from start to finish.
Why Is Sales Tax Software Important for Small Businesses?
As a small business owner, sales tax software can be a vital asset for your business. Why? Because it manages the entire sales tax lifecycle for you — handling tax compliance, reducing the risk of errors, and scaling with you as your business grows.
Here are further benefits of implementing sales tax software for your small business:
| Updating sales tax laws. | Sales tax is complicated and can get even more so when you look across states and taxing jurisdictions. An automated solution will always provide accurate tax rates in real time, ensuring you comply with local, state, and federal tax laws. |
| Time and resource savings. | Manually calculating sales tax for each transaction can take a lot of time. Using tax software can free up your time and resources to focus on what matters most: growing your business. |
| Reducing errors. | It’s no secret that making a mistake when calculating sales tax can result in significant problems — typically underpayment or overpayment. Underpaying can lead to severe penalties and interest charges, while overpayment can affect your bottom line. Sales tax software, like Zamp, minimizes these errors by providing accurate tax calculations. |
| Reducing the risk of audits. | If you’re inaccurately filing sales tax, you have a higher chance of being audited. You reduce the risk of an audit with sales tax software by maintaining accurate rates, filing, and record-keeping accuracy. |
| Scalability. | As your company grows, so do your tax responsibilities. Sales tax software is designed to scale with your business, handling increased volume as you start selling in more states and jurisdictions. |
| Simplified tax filing and compliance. | Sales tax software usually includes tax filing. This means you don’t have to worry about handling it yourself and whether it’s been submitted on time. |
Benefits of Using Sales Tax Software for Small Businesses
Having sales tax software for your small business can have a big impact. The benefits include:
| Accuracy in tax calculations. | One of the most significant benefits is accurate sales tax calculations. Tax regulations and laws vary by state and city, and the tax software can automatically determine the right rates and apply them to the point of service (POS) for every transaction. |
| Time savings. | Calculating sales tax or setting it up in your storefront can take a lot of time, especially if you don’t do it correctly. Sales tax software solves this problem by handling it so you can spend time and resources in other business areas. |
| Ease of compliance. | Staying compliant with changing tax laws can be difficult if you operate in multiple jurisdictions. Sales tax software stays updated with the latest tax laws, rates, and rules. |
| Integrations. | The best sales tax software offers a solution that can integrate with other business systems, like Shopify, BigCommerce, Stripe, Intuit, and more. This allows you to streamline your sales process, ensuring accurate tax calculations are being applied to invoices and purchases at checkout. |
| Simplified filing process. | Most sales tax solutions offer a filing and remittance feature, which includes automatically filing sales tax returns for you and remitting the right amount of money you owe to the states. This helps you stay compliant every time. |
| Data security. | The best sales tax software has strict security measures and workflows to protect sensitive financial data. |
How to Choose a Sales Tax Software for Your Small Business
As a small business owner, there’s a lot at stake when you choose sales tax software for your business. Here are some things to think about as you’re choosing selecting a tax solution:
1. The needs of your business
There are several things to consider about your business needs, including:
- Your volume of sales: Consider how many transactions you’re processing daily. Your sales volume can directly impact the type of sales tax software you’ll need.
- Transaction variety: What are the types of transactions you handle? Do you have a lot of products with different taxability rules? If you offer a range of products, you’ll want sales tax software to handle and process correct taxability.
- Your current tax situation: Is your current tax situation working? Or are you spending a lot of time handling it manually? Understanding your situation can help guide you as you develop a strategy for what you need.
- Multi-state operations: Businesses operating in multiple states should consider getting software capable of handling different tax laws across states and local jurisdictions.
- Scalability: When thinking about sales tax software, you want to think about your current and future needs. Look for a solution that can grow and evolve with your business.
- Long-term support: You should not purchase sales tax automation software without long-term support. Several newer tax companies do not emphasize customer service. It’s always important to read reviews and do research before choosing a solution.
2. Research sales tax software solutions
After you’ve assessed your business needs, you’ll want to start researching what solutions may work well for your business needs. Some key features to look for are:
- Accurate sales tax calculations: Whatever software you choose, you want to ensure it will accurately calculate sales tax rates across all jurisdictions and stay current with tax laws and rates.
- Integration capabilities: Find a solution that easily integrates with your existing business systems and constantly expands integration opportunities.
- Ease of use: Look for compliance software with an intuitive interface that helps you find what you need quickly and efficiently.
- Customer support: Look for a sales tax software solution with strong customer support that will answer any questions you have about sales tax.
3. Scalability with your business
As your business grows, you want software that can grow and adapt to it. Be on the lookout for:
- Software that is capable of scaling with your business growth: Any software you choose should be able to handle increased transaction volume as your business grows. You’ll also want to ensure it can scale into new geographic areas, whether more states or internationally. Look for software that offers multiple tiers or plans so you can upgrade as your business changes.
- Flexibility: Tax laws constantly change, so you want to ensure that your sales tax solution will adapt to changes. How has the software responded to changes? Does it have a good record of staying up to date with legislative changes? You should consider these things in addition to asking for reviews and references.
- New features and services: You may need more features as your business scales. Look for a sales tax solution that offers a range of add-ons or integrations.
Sales Tax Software for Small Businesses: Conclusion
Having explored the various benefits of sales tax software, it’s clear that picking the right system is key to maintaining compliance and streamlining tax operations for your small business.
Before committing, scrutinize your options to ensure the sales tax software you choose aligns perfectly with your small business needs. Take your time to compare features, ease of use, and customer support. Look for reviews from businesses similar to yours and consider how their experiences can inform your decision.
Find the solution that resonates with your unique situation, and you’ll set your business up for smoother sailing ahead.
